SFWA Science Fiction Bundle!

Hey, SFWA (Science Fiction Writers of America, an organization with international members of which I was President way back in 1998-2001) has teamed up with StoryBundle (offering curated assortments of ebooks at incredibly low prices for the bundle since 2012, helmed by Jason Chen) to offer the first ever SFWA Science Fiction Bundle.

Here's how it works:  You pay as much or as little as you want (but no less than $5) for these six science fiction novels:

• Saiensu Fikushon 2016 by TOBI Hirotaka, Toh Enjoe and Taiyo Fujii
• Borrowed Tides by Paul Levinson
• The Weave by Nancy Jane Moore
• Truck Stop Earth by Michael A. Armstrong
• Children of Arkadia by M. Darusha Wehm
• Beyond the Gates by Catherine Wells

And, if you'd like the following six additional bonus books, just kick in a minimum of $15, and they'll be yours in addition to the original six:

• Unidentified Funny Objects by Alex Shvartsman
• Factoring Humanity by Robert J. Sawyer
• Strangers Among Us by Susan Forest and Lucas K. Law
• Tech Heaven by Linda Nagata
• The Burning Eye by John F. Carr
• The Leaves of October by Don Sakers

These books were all selected - curated, in the modern digital parlance - by current SFWA President Cat Rambo.  Hey, I know she has discerning tastes, because she included Borrowed Tides (about the first starship to Alpha Centauri).  But I can also tell you I read and much enjoyed some of the other books, as well, including my friend Rob Sawyer's Factoring Humanity (also about Alpha Centauri, a very different kind of story), and (also unlike Borrowed Tides) a 1999 Hugo Award nominee.

Here's why this story bundle makes lots of sense (and saves you lots of dollars and cents) financially. Borrowed Tides is priced at $6.99.   I may lower the price once in a blue moon for a special sale, but I don't believe in giving my books away for free, and never will.  So, for less than the price of Borrowed Tides, if the novel has ever struck your interest, you can get it through the StoryBundle along with five other novels.  And, for just an additional $10, you get six more books.

The books will be let out of the bundle - i.e., the sale ends - in just 20 days.  More about this, including a handy link to buy the bundle, over here.  Enjoy!

Touching the Face of the Cosmos just published

Click here, and then on Look Inside, to see Table of Contents

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right after my interview John Glenn, appearing in the anthology

#7 on Amazon Kindle Top 100 Science and Religion a day after publication

FlashForward Ends on a High Note

A fine finale for FlashForward tonight, which makes me feel more than ever that the series deserved at least another season.

After tempting us and taunting us all season long with which of the flashforwards would come true - the only we knew for sure did not was Gough's, who committed suicide - we had an excellent series of confirmations of the future against all odds tonight, which included

• Bryce and Keiko meeting in the restaurant after all, when her mother distracts ICE officials at the airport, allowing Keiko to get to the restaurant, and Bryce earlier explaining to Nicole that his true love is Keiko
• Nicole almost drowning after all - she was not being baptized - which explains her bad feeling about her flashforward - but the guy she saw briefly in the hospital didn't come to hurt her, but rescue her
• Aaron's daughter, who seemed to have died last week, coming back to life after all.

But the most interesting, and satisfying story, concerned what happens to Mark.  He of course ends up in FBI headquarters.   Meanwhile, we've seen the first flashforward which did not come completely true - Janis's sonogram in the hospital shows her baby's all right all right, but the baby's a boy not  a girl.  So the flashforwards can be almost completely true.   At chez Benford, Olivia, Lloyd, and the kids are in place, but Lloyd elects to keep his shirt on.   When Olivia looks down at him from balcony, it's clearly not after they just made love (they did kiss pretty passionately).  So their flashforward also came almost true.   And though Vogel does say, outside the Benford house, that Benford is dead, it turns out that that's just the first part of a longer, conditional statement that ends along the lines of, there's no way he'll get out of that building.  So he's not really saying that Benford is dead, but that Benford will be dead.  Nice touch.

And though Mark's attacked by the masked team, he kills them at all, after figuring out that the next flashforward will occur in just 14 minutes.  He gets word out to Stan - who managed to kill a bad guy with a shot from the toilet - and a little of the world is warned, but there's also a bomb that's about to blow up the FBI building, and Mark may not be able to get out.

For those who may be seeing this one and final season Flashforward at some time in the future, and may be reading this, I won't tell you the very ending, except to say it is very good, indeed.

Indeed, like Coronet Blue in the 1960s, I predict that FlashForward and all concerned will fare well in the future.  The television series was a good extrapolation of Rob Sawyer's novel, and deserved a longer run, but sometimes it takes the world longer than expected to realize what's happening....


5-min podcast review of FlashForward finale

See also FlashForward Debuts and Oceanic Airlines as a Portal Between FlashForward and Lost ... 1.2: Proofs and Defiance of Inevitability ... 1.3: Conficting Visions and Futures ... 1.4: FlashForward Meets Shaft and House ... Drunk FlashForwarding in 1.5 ... Across the Universe in FlashForward 1.6 ... FlashForward 1.7: The Future Can Be ... FlashForward 1.8: The Nightie as a Grain of Sand ... FlashForward 1.9: Shelter from the Storm ... Olivia Benford at Harvard in Flashforward 1.10 ... Flashforward 1.12 Parts 1 and 2 ... FlashForward 1.13: Aaron's Daughter, Mark's Gun, and Magpies ... FlashForward 1.14:  Somalia, LA, Fate Irresistible and Resistible ... FlashForward 1.15: Who's That Lady? ... FlashForward 1.16: Mark's Gun and Demetri's Wedding ... FlashForward 1.17: Mark, Demetri, and Hari Seldon ... FlashForward 1.18: Triple Forks ... FlashForward 1.19: The Stubborn Universe ...  FlashForward 1.20: Rehearsal for Unwarranted Retirement

Listen to 40-minute interview with Robert J. Sawyer

Bones 5.20: Ergo Together!

The two big frustrations I had going into tonight's episode of Bones - 5.20 - is that Bones and Booth are not yet together romantically (hopeless case, maybe) and that neither are Angela and Jack, especially given the salient fact that they once were.  Well, leave it to an episode written Kathy Reichs - anthropologist and author the series of novels upon which Bones the TV series based - to take care of the second, in a delightful, superb episode no less!

Here's how that happened:  Angela and Jack are driving back from the crime scene (more on that, below), Jack's "driving like an old lady" (Angela's description), i.e., weaving a little as they're doing some research via their iPhone or whatever, when the last of the straight-laced sheriffs pulls them over.  When it turns out that both have outstanding warrants for minor nonsense, the sheriff puts them in jail until the local judge can adjudicate.

Thanks goodness for the sheriff!   The single cell Angela and Jack are in - overnight - gives them a chance to realize what we've all realized, that is, the two are right for each other.   Before they're sprung from the pokey, the pokey judge at last arrives, and not only springs but marries them.  Excellent!

Meanwhile, back on the forensic anthropology front, the real culprit in this crime, which entails the murder of a witch by other good witches, is one of the ergot fungi, of the genus Claviceps.  Ergot grows on rye and related grains, and produces profound hallucinogenic states.  It's been implicated, via anthropological forensic theory, in everything from belief in demons in the Middle Ages to demonization of witches then and in more modern times.   Tonight it's the trigger that transforms a coven of good witches into killers.

Kathy Reichs should write more episodes.    It's been original author's night on television, with Reichs writing this episode of Bones and Robert J. Sawyer, author of the novel upon which FlashForward (also in the 8-9 hour) is based, writing tonight's episode for that series (see my review).  A great night of television!

See also Bones: Hilarity and Crime and Bones is Back For Season 5: What Is Love? and 5.2: Anonymous Donors and Pipes and 5.3: Bones in Amish Country and 5.4: Bones Meets Peyton Place and Desperate Housewives and Ancient Bones 5.5 and Bones 5.6: A Chicken in Every Viewer's Pot and Psychological Bones 5.7 and Bones 5.8: Booth's "Pops" and Bones 5.9 Meets Avatar and Videogamers ... Bad Santa, Heart-Warming Bones 5.10 ... Bones 5.11: Of UFOs, Bloggers, and Triangles ... Bones 5.12: A Famous Skeleton and Angela's Baby ... Love with Teeth on Bones 5.13 ... Faith vs. Science vs. Psychology in Bones 5.14 ... Page 187 in Bones 5.15 ... Bones 100: Two Deep Kisses and One Wild Relationship ... Bones 5.17: The Deadly Stars ... Bones Under Water in 5.18



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The Plot to Save Socrates

"challenging fun" - Entertainment Weekly

"a Da Vinci-esque thriller" - New York Daily News

"Sierra Waters is sexy as hell" - curled up with a good book

FlashForward 1.19: The Stubborn Universe

FlashForward 1.19 was written by Robert J. Sawyer - author of the novel upon which the series is based - and a great friend for almost two decades now.   I say that in the interest of full disclosure.  But as I mentioned when I started reviewing FlashForward in the Fall, I'm not going to let that stop me from reviewing this fine series, extraordinary in many ways, and from calling things in the series as I see them.

The dominant theme in tonight's episode - appropriately entitled "Course Correction" - is the universe's stubborn resistance to changing its course, in this case, the deaths of people foreseen in the flashforwards.   It's a powerfully attractive theme.   I first began thinking about it when I read Stephen Hawking's "chronology protection conjecture" in the 1990s, which holds that, even if time travel were possible, the universe would not let it happen, lest it risk itself becoming unraveled by time travelers.  My 1995 novelette, The Chronology Protection Case (Analog Magazine), explored that theme in the context of a serial killing of scientists.

It's a theme bursting with paradox at every turn, which is what makes it so much fun.   In FlashForward, one could ask, is the flashforward what the universe "wanted," or was it something that happened contrary to the universe's original course?  Since human beings, who are part of the universe, caused the blackout/flashforward, we could well conclude that this is what the universe wanted (such a conclusion could be warranted in any development, caused by anything in the universe, since it's taking place, by definition, in the universe - this is part of the great paradox of this issue, and another name for it is infinite regress).   This, indeed, is what is assumed in FlashForward, which means that any attempt to prevent what was foreseen in the flashforwards is going against what the universe "intended," which provokes the universe to "correct" it.

Of course, we could say that any changes in the universe's plan are/were also part of the universe, so why would the universe be bent on correcting it?  You could say that, alright, but it's a quick path to driving yourself crazy (this is why I call paradox the root canal work of the human intellect).  In other words, you can only go so far with paradox - that's part of what makes paradox paradox.

On FlashForward, then, the universe seems to be correcting, by whatever means, the saving of people who were supposed to die.   This affects, most notably, Celia (the object of Gough's noble suicide and attempt to change the future in Episode 1.7) and Jeff Slingerland of Blue Hand fame.   Both end up dead tonight.  And, of course, squarely back in the universe's cross-hairs tonight is Demetri.   It's a fine turn  of events indeed, for now his brilliant rescue from the jaws of fate several weeks ago is in danger of being undone.    The mere raising of the universe as course corrector means Demetri is only in slightly better shape than he was before Mark saved him.

Other good moves tonight involve Bryce (who learns his cancer's in remission) and Nicole kissing,  and Lloyd and Olivia ... kissing.   Actually, I'm not so happy about that, I've become a Mark fan, and I also like Keiko, but the recouplings are good story telling.

But, whew, the paradox, that's the thing.   You can't find it served up like this any place else on television.


6-min podcast review of FlashForward

See also FlashForward Debuts and Oceanic Airlines as a Portal Between FlashForward and Lost ... 1.2: Proofs and Defiance of Inevitability ... 1.3: Conficting Visions and Futures ... 1.4: FlashForward Meets Shaft and House ... Drunk FlashForwarding in 1.5 ... Across the Universe in FlashForward 1.6 ... FlashForward 1.7: The Future Can Be ... FlashForward 1.8: The Nightie as a Grain of Sand ... FlashForward 1.9: Shelter from the Storm ... Olivia Benford at Harvard in Flashforward 1.10 ... Flashforward 1.12 Parts 1 and 2 ... FlashForward 1.13: Aaron's Daughter, Mark's Gun, and Magpies ... FlashForward 1.14:  Somalia, LA, Fate Irresistible and Resistible ... FlashForward 1.15: Who's That Lady? ... FlashForward 1.16: Mark's Gun and Demetri's Wedding ... FlashForward 1.17: Mark, Demetri, and Hari Seldon ... FlashForward 1.18: Triple Forks

Listen to 40-minute interview with Robert J. Sawyer

Save Flashforward!! - Let ABC know you love it!

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The Plot to Save Socrates


"challenging fun" - Entertainment Weekly

"a Da Vinci-esque thriller" - New York Daily News

"Sierra Waters is sexy as hell" - curled up with a good book

Oceanic Airlines as a Portal Between FlashForward and Lost

I mentioned in my review of the FlashForward’s fine premiere last week the Oceanic Airlines billboard that appeared in a Los Angeles scene. I said it was a nod to Lost. I think it’s worth another blog post to say it’s much more.

What that billboard does is proclaim that FlashForward and Lost are taking place in the same universe. It’s a universe alternate to ours in which there is no Oceanic Airlines. But it’s a universe in which all the strange phenomena of Lost – including Oceanic Airlines and an island and people that can jump through time – exist or existed.

Oceanic Airlines in FlashForward is in effect a portal that connects both ways between the people and events of Lost and the people and events of FlashForward. Since FlashForward takes place in the present and six months into future, and Lost takes place a little and much further back in the past, that can work.

The people part of the portal are especially significant to consider. Jack in Lost could end up in some episode of FlashForward – not just the actor Matthew Fox but the character Dr. Jack Shephard. Mark Benford from FlashForward could appear in Lost.

In some cases, though, it could get a little complicated. Olivia Benford in FlashForward is played by Sonya Walger, who also plays Penny in Lost. So the actress would pretty much always have to be Olivia in FlashForward, and Penny in Lost, lest the viewers get totally confused and crazy. If Simon, played by Dominic Monaghan in FlashForward (we haven’t really met him yet on the series), were to show up in Lost, viewers would have a hard time understanding why “Simon” looked just like the late Charlie Pace.

Fortunately, Robert J. Sawyer, the author of the FlashForward novel upon which the series is based, doesn’t look much like James Sawyer from Lost, so we would be ok on that score.

But whichever ways these two series go, we could be in for some fascinating crossovers, or, who knows, maybe none at all.

See also FlashForward Debuts

Listen to 40-minute interview with Robert J. Sawyer

review of Lost Season 5 finale, with links to reviews of earlier episodes


6-min podcast episode about Oceanic

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FlashForward Debuts: Irresistible Human Stories and Science Fiction

Before I review the first episode of FlashForward - which I thought was splendid - I should tell you, in the spirit of full disclosure, that the novel FlashForward upon which this ABC-TV series is based was written by my good friend, Robert J. Sawyer. That said, I should add that I'm especially delighted that I enjoyed the premiere of this series so much, because I would have had no choice but to be honest with you if I did not, or I might not have reviewed the series at all. And I promise to give you my candid views of every episode that I review.

The second preambling point I should make is that the series story is different in many ways from the novel, and at the same time it draws upon many of its powerful themes, but I won't spend any time here at all with comparisons pro, con, or otherwise to the novel. Instead, as I have been doing with True Blood - based also on a series of novels - I'll be reviewing the television series FlashForward totally on its own terms.

So here goes ... (as with all of my reviews, expect spoilers) ...

Everyone in the world (or, as is revealed near the end of show, everyone other than at least one) blacks out for 2 minutes and 17 seventeen seconds. But it's not really a black out, because almost everyone (again, minus at least one, and not the one indicated above), has a vision of the future six months into the future.

The first important point in the plot, confirmed in a variety of effective, emotionally compelling ways, is that the vision is proven as in some sense real, not a mass hallucination. An FBI guy in Los Angeles recalls being in a meeting with his counterpart in New Scotland Yard six months from now, and she confirms it, too, down to the detail of a bird flying into a window.

The most compelling confirmation comes from Mark Benford (well played by Joseph Fiennes), an FBI agent married to a doctor, Olivia. She's played by Sonya Walger, who is always a pleasure to see in any role on the screen, including The Sarah Connor Chronicles, Tell Me You Love Me, and, of course, as Penny in Lost. Mark's vision provides the foundation of the investigative part of this story - he sees himself in the future looking at names on a board as part of a case, and this gets the case started in our present (more on this in the next two paragraphs). Olivia's vision sees her happy and in love with another man - a vision which upsets her, to say the least, since she is very happily married to Mark, and this in effect sets her and Mark on a path of making sure the future she saw does not come into being, even if it might have benefits for other people. A part of Mark is hoping that the vision may somehow not be real - but the hope is dashed when his young daughter asks him in a quietly wrenching last scene to put on a friendship bracelet she made for him. Mark has seen this on his hand in the future.

The issue of pre-determination versus free-will is always on the table when people see the future, either by traveling to it, or somehow viewing it, in science fiction. Indeed, one of the reasons I think time travel is impossible, though I love to write and read and see it, is that I believe in free will. If you know the future, and that has any meaning, that must mean you have no free will - you cannot change what you saw or otherwise know about the future.

An appealing intellectual game for people who like time travel is a future, which hasn't happened yet, causing itself to happen by influencing the past. FlashForward has this intriguing reversal of cause and effect, in Mark's investigation in the present ignited by what he saw in the future, and that in itself makes it exceptional television.

Lost has some of this, too, and there are some similarities - for the good, I'd say - between the two series (as well as a billboard for Oceanic Airlines in an early FlashForward scene). A kangaroo running through Los Angeles, a mysterious hooded figure who did not black out (he's caught on a video taken at a stadium - I suspect he's the character played by Dominic Monaghan, by the way, but that's just a guess), and of course people who know what's going to happen (obviously just about everyone in FlashForward) all have echoes of Lost.

But FlashForward has a multiplicity of powerful stories all its own, including one character, Mark's partner Demetri (John Choe), who has no vision of the future at all. Does that mean he's bound to die? The answer will no doubt not be even close to that simple, but the tableau of conflicting interests, ranging from wanting to ensure to wanting to prevent the glimpsed future, makes for an irresistible story.

The premiere of FlashForward will be on ABC again tomorrow evening - well worth seeing if you missed or didn't TiVo or DVR it. I'll be back here next week and every week it's on - which I suspect will be years - with a review of FlashForward.

You might enjoy my in-depth interview with Robert J. Sawyer from last week.

10-min podcast review of FlashForward 1.1

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another kind of time bending

#SFWApro

Interview with Robert J. Sawyer about FlashForward

As a lead-up to the premiere of ABC's new series FlashForward this Thursday - which I'll be reviewing here, and every subsequent episode - I thought you might enjoy this in-depth interview I conducted week before last with Robert J. Sawyer, author of the novel upon which the series is based.

Rob talks about how his novel progressed from page to screen, his assessment of the cast, what it feels like to be author of a novel made into a television series, the different paths in the novel and the television series, and much more....


interview with Robert J. Sawyer about FlashForward

A Conversation with Robert J. Sawyer

Check out the brand new episode of my Light On Light Through podcast...

A conversation with award-winning science fiction author Robert J. Sawyer ... my good friend for more than a decade ... my predecessor as President of the Science Fiction Writers of America (and I served as his Vice President) ... Rob is winner of the Hugo Award for Best Novel, the Nebula Award for Best Novel, and more awards, almost as numerous as stars in the universe ... he's Canada's premier science fiction writer ... We talk not only about Rob's novels -
including his latest, rollback - but about the true value of science fiction to humanity, a trip to Mars that almost happened in the 1960s, the Pope's Astronomer, and much more ... a no-holds-barred, unedited 20-minute connversation...